Paella with Tomatoes and Eggs

My vegetarian paella starts with sofrito, a mixture of aromatics, herbs, and tomatoes, sautéed in olive oil until it becomes a thick paste. Saffron is traditional in paella but I also like to add smoked paprika. It’s also traditional to serve it with garlic mayonnaise but try Chimichurri for a deliciously unorthodox alternative. What is not traditional is my addition of eggs, which bake into the savory rice mixture. It’s also delicious without, so I have made them optional. No need for a paellera (a two-handled paella pan), but your pan should be wide enough to hold the grains of rice in a thin layer. This will help develop the crusty bits of rice on the bottom of the pan (called socarrat) that are the best part of the dish. Since most home cooks don’t own such a big pan, I prefer starting paella on the stove in a roasting pan or my largest skillet and moving it to the oven. To properly develop the socarrat, put the pan back on the stove for a couple of minutes before serving.

Preparation

Heat the oven to 450°F. Warm the stock in a medium saucepan with the saffron if you’re using it. Put the tomatoes in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Toss gently to coat.

Put the remaining oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it’s shiny, another minute or 2. Carefully add the stock and stir until just combined.

Put the tomato wedges on top of the rice and drizzle with the juices that accumulated in the bottom of the bowl. Use a large spoon to make 4 to 6 indentations in the rice and carefully crack an egg into each. Put the pan in the oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if the rice is dry and just tender. If not, return the pan to the oven for another 5 minutes. If the rice looks too dry at this point and still isn’t quite done, add a small amount of stock, wine, or water. When the rice is ready, turn off the oven and let it sit for at least 5 and up to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put the pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust
before serving.

PAELLA WITH EGGPLANT

Instead of tomatoes and eggs, use 1 pound eggplant, peeled if you like, and cubed. In Step 1, increase the oil to 2 tablespoons.

PAELLA WITH MUSHROOM CAPS

Instead of tomatoes and eggs, use 1 pound fresh mushrooms like cremini (sometimes called “baby bellas”) or shiitake. Trim the
stems and save them for another use, but leave the caps whole. Proceed with the recipe, putting the caps on top of the rice, smooth side up.

PAELLA WITH SPINACH AND LEMON ZEST

You’ll have to pile the spinach up on top of the rice, but it will cook down and form a lovely green topping: Instead of
tomatoes and eggs, use 1 pound fresh spinach, rinsed, trimmed of thick stems, and chopped. When you put it in the bowl with the olive oil, add 1 tablespoon minced lemon zest.

PAELLA WITH FAVA BEANS

You could also make this with limas or edamame: Instead of the tomatoes and eggs, use 1 cup shelled and peeled fava beans (frozen are fine).

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Reviews

I had a similar issue with the amount of liquid. It's too far off. What I did to fix it was add a half cup more of rice and cooked that equation down. The eggs came out perfectly once they had a proper bed of rice to sit in. I used arborio. The result also gave us great comfort food leftovers.

Maybe it's because I didn't use the right brown rice or pan, but when I combined the stock and rice, it just sat there underwater and there was no visible rice to put the tomatoes and eggs into. I ended up cooking it down for half hour and then roasting it... the eggs did turn out uncooked and then over cooked, and in the end, it was just decent brown rice... I think I have bad luck with paella!

One key thing that I think I missed was making sure your rice is cooked when adding to the onion and spice mixture. Either the recipe isn't terribly clear or reading is too hard today, but I was not able to lay my tomato wedges on top to get the nicely roasted look in the photo and instead submerged them in broth. This probably would have changed the texture profile of the recipe, which would have been an improvement.
Smoked paprika is almost a must here, and I would be interested to see how to flavour changes next time I have saffron on hand. I used arborio rice, which worked great. I would make this recipe again as a side for a main.

Well unfortunately the eggs came out rubbery, dry, and overcooked - I think tthey should only have been added during the last 5 mins of cooking. I added roasted red bell peppers and cumin. This would be a nice rice side dish wwithout the eggs.

I didn’t have very high hopes for this - I literally was scrounging the cupboards and recipes to keep from having to shop. However, the flavor pop of the paprika and saffron really took this dish to a new level. I did use what was on hand - home canned tomatoes instead of fresh, brown jasmine rice(which I parboiled while prepping the rest), added some celery and frozen peas - but quite delicious. Little prep for a filling, tasty dinner.